The Great Gatsby (1926 film)
The Great Gatsby | |
---|---|
Directed by | Herbert Brenon |
Written by | Becky Gardiner (scenario) Elizabeth Meehan (adaptation) |
Based on | The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald |
Produced by | Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor |
Starring | Warner Baxter Lois Wilson Neil Hamilton Georgia Hale William Powell |
Cinematography | Leo Tover |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Great Gatsby is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Herbert Brenon.[1] It was the first film adaptation of the 1925 novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Warner Baxter portrayed Jay Gatsby and Lois Wilson portrayed Daisy Buchanan.[2] The film was produced by Famous Players–Lasky, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The Great Gatsby is now considered lost.[3][4] A vintage movie trailer displaying short clips of the film still exists.
Plot
The film is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel where Midwesterner Nick Carraway is lured into the lavish world of his Long Island neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Soon, however, Carraway sees through the cracks of Gatsby's nouveau riche existence, where obsession, madness, and tragedy await.
The film's plot diverges from Fitzgerald's novel in several key respects: Daisy renounces Gatsby when she learns he is a bootlegger as opposed to when he demands she declare that she never loved Tom.[2] Daisy also attempts to confess publicly to killing Myrtle Wilson but fails to do so.[2] She later departs New York City with her husband Tom prior to Gatsby's murder by George Wilson and, consequently, Daisy has no knowledge of Gatsby's death.[2] The final shot of the film shows "Daisy and her husband Tom and their tot draped beautifully on the porch of their happy home."[2]
Cast
- Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby
- Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan
- Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway
- Georgia Hale as Myrtle Wilson
- William Powell as George Wilson
- Hale Hamilton as Tom Buchanan
- Carmelita Geraghty as Jordan Baker
- George Nash as Charles Wolf[a]
- Eric Blore as Lord Digby
- Gunboat Smith as Bert
- Claire Whitney as Catherine
- Claude Brooke - Uncredited role
- Nancy Kelly - Uncredited role
Production
The screenplay was written by Becky Gardiner and
The film's director Herbert Brenon designed The Great Gatsby as lightweight, popular entertainment, playing up the party scenes at Gatsby's mansion and emphasizing their scandalous elements. The film had a running time of 80 minutes, or 7,296 feet.[1][3]
Reception
Film critics
In contrast to Hall's mixed review, journalist Abel Green's November 1926 review published in Variety was more positive.[6] Green deemed Brenon's production to be "serviceable film material" and "a good, interesting gripping cinema exposition of the type certain to be readily acclaimed by the average fan, with the usual Long Island parties and the rest of those high-hat trimmings thrown in to clinch the argument."[6] Presumably in reaction to Daisy Buchanan rejecting Gatsby when she discovers that he is a bootlegger,[2] the Variety reviewer wryly observed that Gatsby's "Volstead violating" bootlegging was not "a heinous crime despite the existence of a federal statute which declares it so."[6] The reviewer praised Warner Baxter's portrayal of Gatsby and Neil Hamilton's portrayal of Nick Carraway but found Lois Wilson's interpretation of Daisy to be needlessly unsympathetic.[6]
Fitzgeralds
Although the film received generally positive reviews from critics, novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald purportedly loathed Brenon's cinematic adaptation of his novel.[7] While living in a Los Angeles bungalow with his wife Zelda Sayre in early 1927, the couple viewed the film at a nearby theater and walked out midway through the screening.[7] "We saw The Great Gatsby at the movies," Zelda later wrote to their daughter Scottie and her nanny. "It's ROTTEN and awful and terrible and we left."[7]
Civic groups
Following the release of the film,
The civic group declared that, although "some homes are not sacred, some women not pure and some men not clean," it was nonetheless morally wrong "in the name of amusement to portray stories of this undesirable life, to hold it up before the theater going public for the [morally] weak to become interested in."[8] They demanded that future motion pictures depict "the decent, clean American life, which if our nation is to stand, must remain clean and decent as it was at the beginning of our Republic."[9]
Preservation status
Professor
Gallery
-
Behind-the-scenes photo of actress Lois Wilson with director Herbert Brenon
-
A 1926lobby cardfor the film
-
A 1926lobby cardfor the film
-
Film advertisement
-
Publicity still of Warner Baxter as Jay Gatsby
-
Publicity still of Neil Hamilton as Nick Carraway
-
Publicity still of Lois Wilson as Daisy Buchanan
-
Publicity still of William Powell as George Wilson
References
Notes
- White Anglo-Saxon Protestantand rechristened Charles Wolf.
Citations
- ^ a b Library of Congress 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g Tredell 2007, pp. 93–96.
- ^ a b c d Dixon 2003.
- ^ Silent Era 2010.
- ^ a b c d Hall 1926.
- ^ a b c d Green 1926.
- ^ a b c Mellow 1984, p. 281; Hamilton 1990, p. 33.
- ^ a b c MPPDA Records 1926, p. 1.
- ^ MPPDA Records 1926, p. 2.
Bibliography
- Bennett, Carl (May 6, 2010). "Progressive Silent Film List: The Great Gatsby". Silent Era. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- Dixon, Wheeler Winston (2003). "The Three Film Versions of The Great Gatsby: A Vision Deferred". Literature Film Quarterly. United Kingdom: Routledge. Archived from the original on June 5, 2013. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
- Green, Abel (November 24, 1926). "The Great Gatsby". Variety. Los Angeles, California. Retrieved June 6, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
- Hall, Mordaunt (November 22, 1926). "Gold and Cocktails". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- Hamilton, Ian (1990). Writers in Hollywood, 1915-1951. New York: ISBN 0-06-016231-7– via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 0-395-34412-3– via Internet Archive.
Hollywood," [Zelda] wrote Scottie, "is not gay like the magazines say but very quiet. The stars almost never go out in public and every place closes at mid-night." They had been to see a screening of The Great Gatsby, she wrote: "It's ROTTEN and awful and terrible and we left.
- "The Great Gatsby / Herbert Brenon [motion picture]". Performing Arts Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress. January 1, 2017. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- "The Great Gatsby (1926) - Production Code Administration Records". Margaret Herrick Library Digital Collections. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. December 15, 1926. p. 1. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
- Tredell, Nicolas (February 28, 2007). Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: A Reader's Guide. London: ISBN 978-0-8264-9010-0. Retrieved June 6, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
External links
- The Great Gatsby (1926) trailer on YouTube
- The Great Gatsby (1926) at IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie